Shutterstock.comBad day?No place to run, no place to hide! That was the state of play in a dismal day of trading Tuesday, as stocks were bludgeoned and investors scrambled for safety amid fretting about a premature interest-rate hike and global economic malaise. The Dow Industrial Average DJIA, -1.85% plunged more than 333 points, off 1.9%, to 17,662 — its biggest fall in five months; while the S&P 500 SPX, -1.70% fell about 35 points, or 1.7%, to 2,044. The tech-heavy Nasdaq COMP, -1.67% was walloped too, shedding about 83 points, or down 1.7%, to close at 4,859.7, a day after Apple Inc. AAPL, +0.45% failed to wow with its techy timepiece, the Apple Watch. Stashing cash under your mattress turned out to be, perhaps, investors’ best bet. But if you’re stashing cash, it had better be the dollar DXY, +0.59% which was zooming to multiyear highs against rivals and rattling the market in its wake. The sheer velocity of the dollar’s ascent against other currencies also may be one of the key factors that unnerved investors on Tuesday, as MarketWatch editor William Watts notes. Worries about the dollar’s strength isn’t lost on the White House, where chief economist Jason Furman said Tuesday dollar strength may serve as a headwind for the U.S. economy. As the chart below indicates, the dollar’s rise over the past three months has been a stunning 9.4%. FactSet The surging dollar also sent oil futures to their lowest settlement since Feb. 26 for West Texas Intermediate crude oil for April delivery CLJ5, +0.56% Read: Oil registers lowest settlement in March. oil_031015 Investors ought to brace themselves for Wednesday, when the action isn’t likely to be pretty either, given the fact that stocks finished at or near the day’s trading lows. Mark DeCambre